Greenleaf
by Slayer Greenleaf
Summary: At the end of a dirt path, in the parks of the city of Rivendell, Legolas Greenleaf finds someone that he will never forget...even if he wanted to.


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Greenleaf

"Why in all of Middle-Earth did you agree to join the Fellowship, my Lord? You know your father will never hear the end of it! Why, you could be killed, or _worse_!" One of the many fair-haired manservant elves accompanying Legolas to Rivendell complained to his master, though the Prince knew that he was not really worried about his safety. It was his job to be the voice of reason for the 'unruly prince that does not yet know his place', and he would continue to do so until either his father or Legolas Greenleaf himself fired the damned annoying advisor. Legolas effectively tuned out the droning voice of his ball and chain of an advisor while himself and the small party that had come with him made their way through the beautiful city of Rivendell and back towards their small set of apartments which had been effectively vacated for them. They were a set of rich apartments, overlooking the beautiful falls that ran beside the city of white and gleaming gold. Most certainly, it cost a handful to whomever rented them out, but Legolas and his party did not need to pay a cent.

As if there would be anything less for the Prince of Mirkwood.

The blonde-haired elf sighed, walking at a very moody pace down the small lane that led away from the Council of Elrond and towards the happier parts of the peaceful city. He was in his travelling warrior's attire, beautiful greens and browns topped with his weapons of choice, small blades meant to be hidden - yet give a deadly sting when used - and his personal favourite, a bow and a quiver full of arrows. The long shafts poking from his back did not rattle in their casing as he walked, as it would with some elves and most humans; Legolas was a hunter, and so being had learned to be quiet. He had perfected the talent of being near invisible to the eye and nearly inaudible to the ear, and this was perhaps why his father let him go out from Mirkwood - and 'your responsibilities as this province's crown prince' - and travel to Rivendell to assist the Fellowship.

Legolas smirked. He wondered how his father would take his new position as saviour as the world. His father's advisor, however, caught this smirk and looked at him disapprovingly.

"Do you think that this situation is funny, my Lord?" He chided the Prince, waving his finger in the way that a nanny would do to her young charges. Legolas turned his head slightly to the side, looking quite bored and slightly angry that he had jerked him from his thoughts. Not that they had been very productive thoughts, but still.

Then, quite suddenly, there came a sound. Legolas' ears immediately picked it up; it was sweet, like the sound of music being played from afar. He strained his ears to their limit, and found it was the voice of a young girl, no doubt a young elf maiden. Intrigued by the sound of this beautiful voice, he ever-so-gently weaved off of the main alleyway and made for the gardens, the direction in which the sound came. The advisor didn't know what hit him, and when he looked over to his Lord the next minute he found that he had disappeared into thin air.

"That boy, always getting into trouble." The assistant sighed, gripping the reins of the horse beside him tighter in his hands and walking off to the apartments.

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Indeed, his skills at being stealthy came in handy here. Legolas crept among the leaves and brush outlining the border of the gardens, quite aware that he was standing in a patch of cultivated trees. In another situation this might have been funny, but he was too trained on his target to really care.

She was directly ahead of him, in a gazebo that overlooked the beautiful river that was formed by the waterfall on the North side of the city. It stood up on a bit of a cliff, so there was an air of openness without danger that was very pleasing to the eye and the body. Legolas crept forward still, moving through the brush and managing to keep very well hidden in his trek along the garden trees toward where she stood. Her back was to him, revealed to be bare underneath her long brown hair that went down to the middle of her back. A beautiful length of white silk was draped about her, and she seemed to glow with an otherworldly light that sent shivers down Legolas' spine. It caused an air of familiarity about him that made him shiver, though it was afternoon and quite hot.

Then, quite suddenly, she stopped her singing. She stood stock still, and Legolas knew that she had seen him - or, rather, sensed his presence. He had heard that elven women were good at that type of thing, and here this girl was proving that very theory. Something about 'looking ahead and protecting themselves' or something. Knowing that it was futile to just stand there anymore in the brush like an idiot, he stepped out and lightly tread forward, barely making a sound. Her head turned slightly; she definitely knew he was there, and he sensed a bit of fear from her.

"I came to see what beautiful angel made such music fit for the Gods." Legolas purred, turning on the Greenleaf charm to full. He sensed the tension in her, saw the muscles move in her partially bare back as she shifted, looking as though she would bolt from him.

After some moments, she answered him. "I did not think the prince of Mirkwood would be intrigued by such things." She said at length, still not facing him. Legolas raised an eyebrow. How had she known who he was, though he had not even offered a name?

"It is in my interest anything that is beautiful." Legolas tried, stepping forward another step but not wishing to make the girl uncomfortable. She was young from his standpoint, perhaps in her early years, though her mind - and tongue - betrayed her age. It was always hardest to guess the age of an elf, as after coming of age they looked much the same - young and youthful - until their journey into the forests where they would pass on finally from Middle-Earth and leave all it's troubles behind.

"Is it really, Mirkwood?" She asked, sounding quite irritated with him. Perhaps he had interrupted her for too long. He was about to back away from her when she turned around. Legolas held his breath. He was here looking upon the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in all his two thousand and some years among the living. Her brown hair looked to be wavy and slightly curled at the ends, and beautiful splashes of a lighter brown ran through her hair like someone had streaked a paintbrush through it. Her eyes bore into his own, and he found himself nearly drowning in those beautiful green pools. He knew that his own grey eyes must have been unreadable, and that was the way he would have wished it, but in hers he saw a pain that pained even himself merely looking into them, a pain that looked to be carried on since she was small.

"Perhaps then, you should look somewhere else." She finished, turning back to the view of the landscape, "Because you shall not find it here." Legolas took another step forward, not happy at all with this girl's attitude one bit. Why should an elf, a beautiful elven girl be so unhappy and unsatisfied? Though he knew it was not any of his business, he knew that it simply wasn't right to leave a damsel in distress. He stepped up beside her and looked out at the view as well; it looked as though she were looking down upon the moving shapes of elves, concentrating on their forms as hard as she could.

"It's beautiful." She sighed finally, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear. "Such a wonderful place Rivendell is. I wish I had been born here, I really do. It's the only place where one can feel truly safe and secure." The girl whispered the last part, as though she did not want Legolas to hear it, but he could of course hear what she said.

"Yes, it is. It rivals even the beauty of my home in Mirkwood." Legolas sighed, thinking back to his home where he knew his mother, father and friends would be relaxing and being generally at peace, while he, Legolas, would go on an adventure from which he was not sure he would return.

There was another silence between them. Legolas did not know why he stayed with this girl, but something inside of him obligated him to.

"Why have you come to Rivendell, Prince of Mirkwood?" She asked quietly, her hands gently running against the runners of the gazebo, painted white and shining like almost everything else in the beautiful white city. Legolas considered what he wanted to tell the girl, and finally decided on blurting something out.

"I've needed a vacation for a while, and Rivendell was a good spot to take it, I suppose." He said gently, looking over to her. "Why these questions? Perhaps I should ask you why you are here, as you seem so sad and lost in the world."

The girl looked over at him, blinking gently. He saw that her eyes had become glassy and it looked as though she were going to cry, but she did not. Instead she merely looked at him, her lower lip trembling slightly. Legolas immediately felt guilty, wondering what he did to make her so upset.

"Yes, Mirkwood is beautiful. Very." She whispered, smiling at him with what looked like a rare smile for her. It seemed that she had completely ignored what he had just said to her; her eyes went distant and empty now, and she turned back to the view of all the other elves down below, going about their business. There was a way that she looked at them that made Legolas want to cry as well, but he kept it within himself.

"I miss it." She said softly, her voice now barely above a whisper. There was a sound like the wind blowing in the distance, and the rustling of the green leaves on the tress. Legolas trained his vision on the people below, suddenly overcome with a deep depression. He could not explain it, but suddenly he felt so very tired and downcast. With a heavy heart, he now looked down to the world below him with a sad mourning that he had not experienced ever in his long lifetime. He turned his head heavily over to where she had been standing...

Only to find her gone. Turning slowly around and looking behind him, he saw nothing but the garden paths stretching out before him, and a gentle and welcome cool breeze rustling the leaves on trees in the distance, just as he had heard. He sighed deeply and evenly, looking down once more to the life below him, feeling a deep aching within his heart stir and overwhelm him completely. 

He turned after a few moments, watching warily as a few stray leaves of pure green skittered along the dirt path in front of him, carried along by the wind.

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Hey ppl, thanks for reading! Please review and tell me if I should do a sequel to this!! I can, but this also stands alone by itself quite nicely.


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